The Desert

5 Days later: 

" BOOM! BOOM! BOOOM!!" Blast after blast of wind pummelled a single spot in the large arena with unrelenting ferocity, tearing up the hard dirt underneath. 

Rumius pinched his soaked shirt and brought it up to wipe the sweat from his eyes in a swift motion. It was far from over. The smoke cleared and the blue figure was still advancing on him. With her face hidden in the cowl of her billowing cloak, that didn't look to have a single trace of his unrestrained barrage. She gave off a sense of intimidation that honestly forced Rumius to smile in respect. 

His heart was hammering. His breath was in ragged gasps, yet Rumius could feel the muscles that made him smile moving. ' I'm getting my ass handed to me, though." He thought bitterly. 

Sensing that his mana was at its limit, Rumius resolved to settle this in one last effort. He unconsciously rubbed the small pendant which master had given him to wear around his neck. 

It was meant to protect him from fatal injuries.

It had been a week since Master started training him in earnest for the extermination that she insisted he came along on. In fact, Rumius had wanted to come along, too.

But in return, Rumius could almost never catch a break, aside from his three meals and occasional rests to recover mana and drink potions once Master had squeezed him dry. Right after he was ready enough, she had sent him right back to it. 

Rumius picked up the pace as he ran, circling around his master, muttering away furiously. 

" Whimsy, lout and free. Brigand upon the souls of the breeze and lift me to touch the realms beYOND THE EARTH!!!" Rumius skid to an instant halt as he changed directions and charged directly at his adversary. She turned to face him with a disinterested glance as she readied a spell. 

The air around Rumius rippled like puddles touched by raindrops. Three white flashes shot forward to meet three snaking purple blasts. A giant explosion rocked the arena at the moment of impact. The force pushed Rumius but he grit his teeth and continued charging through the smoke. 

 A hand appeared from within the mist, clad in purple lightning and an instant later, a ray of deep purple ionised the air where Rumius had stood. The electrical pulsing made Rumius's hair stand on end. But Rumius was no longer there. He was in the air and readying his own attack. 

The instant the beam had fired, Rumius had casted his own spell to counter. 

The air had a springy consistency to it as he pushed off and he shot towards the ground with explosive force, the vortex in his hand swirled with a colour of an aurora.

" BLAST!!!" Rumius roared and a white spear of wind was unleashed from his hand, compressed and moving at nigh imperceptible speeds. For anything else that he knew, himself included, the attack lasted only for a fraction of a second. 

Yet with Master, a fraction of a second was a fraction of a second too late. A sound like the clash of two steel plates against each other rang as Master deflected his last ditch attack with a flick of her wrist and responded with one of her own. 

Purple lightning engulfed his vision and an explosion whipped the air into a cyclone as Rumius was blown out of the air before he even reached the ground. 

" Argh!!" He landed hard on the ground, smoking, blackened, and in pain. His mana had reached its limit as well. He let his hand fall to his side as he relaxed his tense muscles.

" Get up. Stop moaning." Master snapped, holding out a vial of greenish liquid. "Recover your mana." She commanded.

Watching as he guzzled the tasteless fluid, Master stopped him once he got halfway through.

" Stop for a while first. What happened back there? And what can you improve?" She asked tonelessly.

Rumius set to thinking.

" I initially tried to overwhelm you with quantity. M-Master, you said earlier that against a superior opponent it was a good idea so that's what I did! Then…uh..I used the new spell you taught me to try to dodge your attacks and launch my own and well…haha." he trailed off, letting the silence and his blackened, smoking face and hair say the rest.

Master nodded. " And your mistakes?" 

Rumius was at a loss." …Honestly…master I'm not sure what else I could have done. My offense at the beginning was my triumph card. My spells were also compressed to be a lot faster than usual but…" 

" What makes you think that fast spells are better?"

" Huh? I mean…"

Master held up a finger. A small purple spark crackled at its top. " Watch." She commanded. 

Slowly, the purple spark began to multiply, snaking outwards until a crackling web of electricity covered her forearm like a vambrace( forearm armour). 

" This is how I've been blocking your spells. What do you think you can do about it?" 

Rumius eyed the magic with narrowed eyes. It was wonderful. But…

"…Unless I know how it deflects my spells, I don't think I can do much about it, Master." He admitted.

 " Oh?" She mused, somewhat intrigued but satisfied with his answer. " Alright then, come, I'll show you. Finish the potion and hurry. " She said, turning on her heels before suddenly stopping and turning back to Rumius.

" Right. There was one more mistake that I wanted you to know about." 

" Glug-Glug-Hmmmhm?" Rumius responded.

" Using speed as leverage against a lightning-wielding mage?" She clicked her tongue. " Not the best idea." 

They left the city two days later. And moment they left the city gates, it was as if the temperature dropped by a dozen degrees on its own. Even though he was smothered in a wool cloak, Rumius's teeth were still chattering. Pulling it closer to him, Rumius could faintly see that his hands were shaking as well. But they didn't feel numb. 

' Well yeah…'

In fact, his entire body was shaking. And so was that of everyone else beside him. That was because, they were currently sitting on the back of four legged, giant…what was it called…Mayaka, whose footfall rumbled the land like falling thunder and angry earthquakes. It was one of the same creatures which he'd seen off in the distance on his first day here. Turned out, it was much tamer than he had imagined and the people of the desert used them for transport. 

Also, they could talk. They just didn't do it often. 

" Last chance to leave, kid! We're moving out for real now!" A voice shouted at him. It came from a burly and large man who sat in front of him, holding the longs reins astride a leather seat that saddled the creature's neck in front of him. His head was partly turned back and Rumius could sort of make out his position from his shiny horns, which reflected what little light there was in the early morning desert. Behind him, Rumius could feel the hum of his Master's mana as she surveyed the land for threats and the presence of six others, demons all. 

" I'm afraid that isn't an option, Mr Mauvelai!" He shouted back.

" I'm pretty determined to become the youngest person to see a famous 'Horror Of The Desert'!" 

The man laughter was a deep hearty sound. " Phwahahahahahah!! I'm afraid it won't be a pretty sight though. Well, I suppose it's too late now to convince you now." 

" I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

 Rumius shot a look to his Master who sat silently behind him with her head hidden in the shadow of her cloak.

' Oh I know.' He gave his silent reply.

As of now, everything was quiet. A Demon lady stood up from the back and approached him. 

" I'm Glia. You?" She gave him a smile as she sat down next to him. 

" Rumius." He said shortly, slightly surprised by her friendliness.

" How old are you, Rumius?" She asked. 

" Hmm, would you believe me if I said that I didn't know?" He tried bantering back. It wasn't technically that wrong. He had been away from home from for quite long now, but he wasn't sure how long exactly had it been either. He could probably give an estimate, but a sure answer was out of the question. 

It worked, and the demon lady added an interested twist to her smiling face. " I guess not."

"...." 

" So…what do you know about the mission?" Rumius asked, trying to carry the conversation and sound casual while doing it. 

" More than you, that's for sure, if you're asking a question like that." Then she laughed and Rumius smiled politely in return. 

" You're an interesting kid." She admitted. " You asking for details?" 

Rumius nodded. 

" Mmmmm details eh. I'll be straight with you that there ain't much. All we know is that a sandworm has been around these parts and attacking caravans. Agravoss can't have that, and so we've now got a job that we can do to feed ourselves. "

" We?" Rumius asked. 

 " Me and the guys at the back." She pointed behind her with a thumb. " We are basically brawn for hire. Can get you just about anything for the right price." She grinned assuredly.

" You guys aren't adventurers?" Rumius asked.

" ...I suppose you could call us that. But we've left our days of exploring the continent long behind already. You know…what with the war going on…there really isn't much here to see." She lamented, the corners of her lips falling slightly. " But that's enough about me. It's your turn. Why are you here?" 

Rumius wasn't averse to sharing in kind. He pointed over his back. " See her? The one in the blue cloak? That's my master." 

" Oh?" Glia noted.

" Yeah. We're actually heading to Li-…certain places. But we can't do it if the routes are all closed up like this. That's why my master and I are here. To get rid of the problem." 

" I see, I see. But then why not just wait till the sandworm leaves? It'll be much easier that way. Oh, but I suppose Agravoss wouldn't be the best place for you to train. You are an aspiring human mage afterall." 

Rumius had to admit that he hadn't thought of that question. While it was certainly true that only the libraries of Limia contained knowledge on how to unlock his unique magic, couldn't they just stay in Agravoss for the time being and work on other aspects of his skills? Maybe the first big turnoff factor might be the man-eating demons, but…Rumius had gotten quite accustomed to them already.

He hadn't decided if that was a good or bad thing yet though, as he eyed the demon next to him.

' Still so naive? Obviously it's because Master Isadora is not interested about normal magic. It's a give and take, remember?' A voice in his head reminded him. Rumius pursed his lips tightly. That was right. She was still his master, and that was meant in more ways than one. His growth was a probably a primary goal for her, but it wasn't the only one she had.

" Hey. Are you alright? Did I say something bad?" Glia suddenly asked worriedly.

" Oh. I'm sorry, it's nothing. I'm simply a little nervous is all. Are you not, Glia?" 

The demon smiled a row of sharp teeth. " It's not my first rodeo. It'll take more than a worm to take my gang down. Besides…."

Rumius ended up enjoyed the company of the demon lady for the next few hours. She was nice to talk to and eventually, the rest of her gang warmed up to him as well. He heard many stories from them and got tips on many different subjects, but in the end, there had been no sign of their objective. 

In the afternoon when the sun had turned a bright yellow and the extreme cold had turned up to a scorching intensity, their troupe stopped for lunch in the shelter of a rock formation.

This was expected. No one thought that they would find the sandworm on the first day. Rumius received two portions gratefully and looked around. Spotting Master off alone in a corner of shade, he made his way over to her side.

" Master. This is your portion." He said 

" Mmm. Thank you." She replied. She didn't look at him but gazed off into the distance. 

Rumius stopped. Her keeping her silence wasn't uncommon, but somehow, Rumius sensed that there was something off today.

" Is something wrong, master?" He asked

Master looked at him. " Well. What do you see? You tell me." 

' Eh? What is she talking about? Is this in cryptic?'

" What do I see? Master?" 

" Yes. Tell me what you see." 

Rumius looked around. " Err…a desert? And a big rock in the middle of nowhere. No…wait!" 

There was something she wanted him to 'see' and because it wasn't here in front of him then that meant that…

Rumius blinked, concentrating. And when he opened his eyes, night had fallen, and the stars were all around him. The world of mana had manifested itself before his eyes. 

' Look for the shape…' he reminded himself constantly as he looked around. But it was nearly impossible. There was mana everywhere. Every grain of sand and of matter in this desert contained a tiny speck of mana. And once he had filtered those out of his perception, the only masses of concentrated mana that remained were only those of the little rocks that lay beneath the sand. His range of vision ended there.

The range of vision in the mana world reached only as far as how much mana one had, and unfortunately, his wasn't much.

Rumius shrugged his shoulders helplessly as turned back to his master without an answer. 

" I'm sorry master…I don't…see anything." 

" Did you look thoroughly? Beneath the sand?" 

" Yes Master. Umm…what were you referring to when you said 'see'? If I had something to look for then maybe…" Rumius trailed off as Master shot to her feet and began walking away.

" Master?" He called, confused. 

" Come along." 

Master walked briskly to Mr Mauvelai.

" Let's move." 

The dark-skinned man froze, a squeezed up morsel of food inches away from his mouth. Rumius found it rather comical. 

" M-move? Move where? Why are we moving? It's lunch!" 

Master cut him off." You can eat while you drive. We're going to the sandworm catacombs."

The man's face darkened. 

" The catacombs? Are you trying to get us killed?" He snarled. 

" There are no sandworms in the catacombs in summer. It is summer. Need I say more?" 

" And what if you're wrong? Then what? Sandworms are highly territorial. They will kill any creature that dares enter the catacombs." Mr Mauvelai shot back. But master simply shrugged. 

" You seem afraid of these sandworms. Do remind me. I seem to be remember that finding and killing them was what we're here to do."

The man paused momentarily, unable to retort against master's uncanny ability to flawlessly win arguments, however, the colour of his face proved that he wasn't a bit pleased.

" Don't worry." Master assured with a hand on his shoulder. " If my hunch is right, then there won't actually be any sandworms at all."